Museums at the crossroad: Contributing to dialogue, curiosity and wonder in natural history museums

The first natural history collections opened to the public were inspired by a sense of curiosity and wonder about the products of nature. They were ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that offered a first-hand interaction between owner and visitors. Nowadays, these two facets of the museum experience—dialogue and wonder—have been lost, in part, due to the information overload coming via the media and the impersonal nature of the museum visit. This paper offers some reflections on the evolution of the museum visit, suggests some ways to rediscover this ‘sense of wonder’ and provides ideas on how to promote two-way communication with museum visitors. Two examples of exhibitions are offered as illustrations of the points discussed.     

Juggling competing activities: academic staff as doctoral candidates

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experiences of a group of established academic staff in New Zealand and the UK, as they undertake a doctorate in their home institutions. Our interest is in how individuals negotiate this dual status from a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) stance that explores how rules, tools, community and divisions of labour, and interacting activity systems, shape doctoral experiences. The focus in this article, having analysed their detailed narrative accounts, is on how academics experience three interdependent activity systems: those surrounding the thesis, the institutional context, and the home-life spheres. Issues related to time, workload and supervision issues, variability in collegial support and impact on personal priorities and time emerged. There is a range of particularities – from easy access to resources/supervisors to inflexible institutional regulations – applicable to this group of doctoral candidates. Negotiating life as an academic with concurrent doctoral candidature provides positive outcomes in terms of teaching, research confidence and general personal and professional development. However, a range of difficulties can also be encountered, particularly in relation to personal and professional relationships, and workload management.     

Effects of interval aerobic training combined with strength exercise on body composition,glycaemic and lipid profile and aerobic capacity of obese rats

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interval aerobic training combined with strength exercise in the same training session on body composition, and glycaemic and lipid profile in obese rats. Sixteen lean Zucker rats and sixteen obese Zucker rats were randomly divided into exercise and sedentary subgroups (4 groups, n = 8). Exercise consisted of interval aerobic training combined with strength exercise in the same training session. The animals trained 60 min/day, 5 days/week for 8 weeks. Body composition, lipid and glycaemic profiles and inflammatory markers were assessed.

Results showed that fat mass was reduced in both lean and obese rats following the exercise training (effect size (95% confidence interval (CI)) = 1.8 (0.5–3.0)). Plasma low-density lipoprotein–cholesterol and fasting glucose were lower in the exercise compared to the sedentary groups (d = 2.0 (0.7–3.2) and 1.8 (0.5–3.0), respectively). Plasma insulin was reduced in exercise compared to sedentary groups (d = 2.1 (0.8–3.4)). Some exercise × phenotype interactions showed that the highest decreases in insulin, homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance, fasting and postprandial glucose were observed in the obese + exercise group (all, P < 0.01). The findings of this study suggest that interval aerobic training combined with strength exercise would improve body composition, and lipid and glycaemic profiles, especially in obese rats.